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Arrange The Clues III
A Shattered Heart Ulalia wasn't impressed. "So, that's basically embarrassing yourself in front of everyone?" Momoko pressed her palm to her forehead. "No, no, that's not it...!" Nobody was impressed. "Okay, that's it. I admit it." Jason shot Ulalia a glare. "Be quiet." He hissed. "Embarrassing? There's a difference between horrific memories and the little things that make you flush red. Think before you talk, Ulalia." Wendy flinched. She rarely saw Jason get mad. For some reason, the area around the group became colder than Momoko's ice! Iris whispered in a tone that seemed solemn- completely at odds with her normal self; "Believe me, I know. Some things are best left buried deep within our memories." Vivian noticed how Iris had become rather sad. "...Iri, just ignore it. That's all in the past now..." Iris was unusually quiet right now; no further responses were given from her as Ulalia and Momoko remained oblivious to the situation; though Ulalia did realize what Jason meant. "Let's go find this 'Fountain'." Jason replied icily. "We're going to destroy it." "Destroy it?" Wendy got the courage to speak. "Why? It's just a Fountain, isn't it?" "Yes." Jason replied shortly. "A Fountain like that cannot be allowed to exist. And there is most likely Dark Magic at work here." Momoko began to theorize once more. "More accurately, it's likely something left by the people of old- back before 400 years ago. It was probably used for public shamings or something. But yes, it's vital that we blow it out of the sky." Iris remained deadly silent through this whole explanation. "...Let's just destroy it and get it over with, please." "We're moving." Jason cut them all off short. "Momoko, where is this fountain? Certainly such a thing isn't in plain sight?" Momoko pressed her pointer figer to her lip, immensed in thought for a few moments. "Well, according to the map-" she withdrew the map once more ", it should be near the frozen lake to the west of here. We could reach it in about fourty-five minutes, tops." "Lead us then." While he never usually commanded anyone, this sounded much more like a command than a request. Momoko surveyed the area for a moment; before she reaffirmed her path. "All we need to do is head to the west of here, as I said, but okay." She began to walk gently and lightly; her steps possessed a certain delicateness about them that was actually lady-like; completely unlike any part of Momoko shown before. Iris was at the back, begrudgingly tagging alone. Gone was her cheery smile and delightfully bobbing tail- in it's place was a scowl and crossed arms. "...I think I'll just go back to the village and relax with the elder until this is over." Jason fell back for a moment, and scooped Iris up into his arms, carrying her like a bride. He wasn't smiling, he never was, but he still intended to comfort the girl all the same. "I can already tell you have something you're keeping from us...so I'll keep you close to me. I won't let anything harm you, even if it's painful memories." Wendy, as per her usually behaviour, was beginning to puff her cheeks out, but at least had enough tact to leave the two alone as the group walked towards the fountain. Yasaka took note of this, surprised. Iris held on to Jason tightly, mumuring, "I don't want to talk about it..." Truly, some scars would never heal. "But thank you, Jason." What was this? She was serious? "Thank you very much. I knew that my trust would never be misplaced in you..." She was holding back tears now. They walked in silence now, whatever Iris' issue was had drained any joy from the group that had remained after Jason's snapping at Ulalia, and Iris had actually fallen asleep in Jason's arms, looking peaceful as her mind was taken off of her problems. Jason looked over at Momoko. "How much longer?" Momoko glanced back at him for a moment. "About five minutes. We seem to be picking up the pace a little because of well, the mood." After a few minutes, they reached an area of pure white, the emerald world glazed over by crystals. "Here we are." Jason kept a grip on Iris, not wanting to wake her up. Last thing he need was for her to look into this. "So....this is the Fountain of Truth..." As he looked at it...he could just tell, something was off about it. "It's....wrong. I can tell. Instinct." Ulalia was actually shuddering from the mere presence of this location. Even though it all seemed clear and serene, there was something...so off-putting about it. The sky had instantly greyed; and a few crimson birds circled around in one spot. "...Oh, hey, hey...that could be the place. Those birds know what's up." "They look like...vultures..." Wendy looked up at them nervously. "This has to be the right place." Yasaka frowned. "A fountain that shows misfortune...who says we send Vivian in first?" Vivian glanced over at the winged cat, shooting her an irked glare. "Oi, you...! Why don't we use you as cat-bait? That seems fair, doesn't it?" Ulalia smiled like a twit and then attempted to push Vivian down towards the center of the area; however, Momoko grabbed her tightly, squeezing her hand. "...We're not going to separate. The words of deceit could tear us all apart. So stay wary." Jason get a grip on Iris, and Wendy clung to his waist. "Would you all prefer to stand back? I'll move forward if none of you can." Vivian did seem worried for the two of them; though she knew that Jason had it under control. "Alright, you two go on ahead." Momoko continued giving instructions. "All you need to do is keep heading to the center. It should be no problem." Iris was still out of it completely; even Vivian poking her didn't seem to rouse her. Jason kept a grip on Iris, who he didn't want to let go of, lest she wake up. "Wendy, stay back with Vivian." He ordered. Wendy complied, clinging to the Vivian instead, like one would cling to an elder sister. Jason stepped into the water, the black water of this corrupted fountain. "The water itself feels like it's trying to remove the very essence of hope from my body." He shifted Iris over his shoulders, letting her sleeping form rest against his back, piggyback. He walked through the water, heading to the center of the fountain. "So....show me your secrets." A bubbly froth stirred up from the fountain; murky black water sprung forth. "So you're finally here..." The voice was echoing and distorted; almost demonic. "I know everything that you pine for- everything you fear. You're so single-focused on one goal and one goal only: that's to protect those you care about so much that you're obsessed. It's eating you up inside, slowly submerging you in the darkness. You're becoming more and more desparate. Soon, I can imagine...in the distant future, you will have sunk into outright villainy to protect them all...You're so afraid of failing that you'll go to extremes..." Iris was utterly speechless as it continued. "What if you can never destroy the Magic Council? What if Guild Haven will be swallowed by the iron-fisted rule of the council and you will all perish? Even worse, what if you are the sole survivor? Then...you'll lose everything and jump off the slope." Jason stopped in his tracks, and had to tighten his grip on Iris to avoid losing her in the shock of words pouring from the water. "I see...." He swallowed a lump in his throat. The words this demon spoke....it truly was what lay deep in his heart. He growled. However, these thoughts were what he dwelled on every waking hour. Frothing water wouldn't make him falter now. "Show yourself, as opposed to whispering from the shadows." The demon continued; "How about you then, Iris Lavra? So friendship is the core of your soul, eh? No, there must be more. Let's go deeper... deeper..." Iris felt a stinging pain in her mind as the fountain dug into her memories. "Ah... it hurts..." "Why, look! Discrimination... abuse... betrayal and hatred. It would seem you actually hate humans... hahahaha..." The fountain cackled out-loud as Iris clutched her head in pain. Iris was gasping for air. "Stop! I don't want to remember! I don't want to relive those times..." The fountain continued tormenting her. "There's more...!" "Oww... it hurts, it hurts! Please, stop! I... I never did anything to anybody, so why... why does everyone hate me?! I was just... just..." Iris was screaming by now. The fountain was probing at her mind and unlocking every single dark secret there was inside her soul. "Pain... violence... loneliness... par for the course... aha, but what's this...?" Iris squealed. "Please, no...! Not that...!" "You may call them your friends, but you don't trust them. Not really. Deep down, you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. In nature, oppressed creatures often cozy up with those who are controlling them. You're merely doing as the animals do." This final statement completely and utterly broke Iris Lavra. Iris fell from Jason's arms and collapsed to the ground, screaming while curling up into a ball. "NOOOOOOOOOO! Please... please stop it! STOP!" "Iris!!!!" Jason called out to her as writhed in her curled up state. He had completely lost his composure now, his face contorted in anger as he turned on the center of the fountain. "You!! Stop this!!!!!" The water began to surge as the voice roared, "Trying to make me stop this is like trying to make a gardener cease trimming weeds. It is part of nature; an unstoppable cause and action with an undetermined effect. It's how the world goes around, perpetually whirling around like a spinning top, Jason LaHote." "I told Iris nothing would harm her!" Jason spun, drawing Gehaburn from nowhere. "You will not turn me into a liar!" He swung Gehaburn with all his might towards the center of the fountain, the construct spewing water. "Vanish!" A creeping laugh resounded from the fountain as a myriad of jet-black pillars of water stopped his attack with relative ease. "Try as you might, there's nothing changing the truth!" The pillars began to converge and fuse into an abstract monstrosity. "That's right." Jason hissed. "Show your ugly face to me." He turned and looked back. "Vivian! Get in here and take Iris out of the water! This worthless demon is mine!" Vivian ran down to the duo, grabbing a borderline comatose and sobbing Iris out of the light waves. "Iri..." she glared up at the fountain, staring daggers at it before speeding off as fast as she could. The fountain demon's form corparalized into the form of a giant that was five times the size of Jason. It had glaring crimson eyes that pierced his soul, and several wings of debris from the fountain manifested at it's back. "I will submerge you in the darkness of your fears, Jason LaHote!" Now that Iris was safer away from the chaos, Jason as slowly regaining his composure. "I have nothing left to fear." A white substance began to form in the air, clinging to his face. "I've lived my to this point surpressing my fears until they were crushed with nothing left." His demonic Mask of Truth fully formed as Jason looked at the demon with stone cold golden eyes with blackened sclerae. "The likes of you won't stop me from moving forward!!" Fear The Devil The fountain demon let out another laugh as it punched it's fist straight at Jason, rending the air while unleashing a torrent of water that blasted straight at him; a component of pressurized water that could tear him asunder with ease. Jason flicked his sword upward, creating a jail-like barrier in front of him, imbued with the loathsome emotions he felt towards the creature. The water torrent hit it square on, but dispersed between the bars, losing nearly all of it's force. The barrier had protected Jason. Jason raised a finger towards the fountain demon, and began to charge it from the fingertip, a beam of pure and utter hatred. "You can't fight with me. Your existence is nothing more than a mere fragment of the hatred and resentment of humanity. A fragment is nothing compared to a whole. You are nothing before my hatred." He let loose the energy beam, as it ripped into the ground, shooting towards the demon, who really wasn't too far off, at great speeds. The demon roared, "You lack sufficient HATRED to strike me down! Demons are composed of all the world's evils, so mere hatred cannot even dent me!" Performing a lumbering yet effective swing of it's hand; the demon batted away the strike as if aiming for a home-run, before letting rip a powerful serial of rising water pillars from the ground towards LaHote. Jason let Gehaburn lose it's composition, turning to energy as he was cloaked in a massive amount of energy himself, the Demon state of Gehaburn. "Expand." He ordered, and the energy cloak expanded, knocking down every water-pillar except one, which actually made contact and knocked Jason up into the air, causing him a moderate deal of pain. "Wroooooooooooooooooooooooar! LaHote, darkness versus darkness will only produce the same result time and time again. It's like fire and flames. Hatred and evil are no different from one another. In order to face me on equal terms, clear your mind, boy!" The demon roared as it unleashed a violent wave of water, sending it crashing straight towards Jason. "Don't speak as if you know how I fight." Jason replied, deflecting the water with ease. Above his cheek, his mask was shattered, exposing his eye. He raised his hand to his eye, and restored the broken sections of his mask. He vanished, appearing right before the demon's torso, slashing it and causing it to stumble. "My mind is clear. Clear with hatred towards you. It is this hatred that I will use to destroy you." "I don't think you are capable of understanding properly. Hate can never defeat evil. Evil is something that has existed since the beginning of time, and it, along with good, shaped the universe." Managing to catch itself in a mechanical, jerky motion, the demon retaliated with a powerful whirlpool that it unleashed straight at Jason's vulnerable figure. Jason's energy cloak began to expand, whirling fast as it met with the whirlpool, it's own alternate spinning course disrupting that of the whirlpool, causing it to die down. "Iris is counting on me, you see." Jason tightened his fist inside the energy blade he was wielding. "Unlike you, there is light in my darkness! Everyone I treasure counts on me. WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE, SCUM!?" His magical power began to rise as he took a stance and his magical aura began to form multiple swords, in the hundreds, all around him. The Bearer Of 100 Swords "W-what...what is that?" Wendy looked on in awe as Jason managed to summon hundreds of swords, all replicas of Gehaburn, currently in their energy state. "It's not perfected...." Jason hissed through his mask. "But this is my Hundred-One Sword Style." Vivian was impressed by the sight of a maze of sword surrounding Jason. "...Amazing." That was the only word she could use to sum up this visually astounding sight." Ulalia kept staring at the countless swords litered about around the ground, studying them obsessively, as if planning to replicate them. "...Interesting..." The fountain demon wasn't too impressed, giving LaHote a barely acknowledging glare. "You think that numbers will defeat me? How foolish you truly are." With a stomp of its foot it released a massive geyser of energy towards Jason, aiming to blow him away there and then. "Tres Semita Sagittis." Jason grabbed three swords and threw them in a straight line. Running along these swords, Jason avoided the geyser easily, as he reached the demon, grabbing the nearest sword and hacking off it's left leg. A fierce whirling sound resounded from the moment that the blade contacted with the demon, though this only disadvantaged it for a split second- as no sooner did it's leg get cut off did it respawn from water. There, the beast let out a lightning-quick snap of the leg, aiming to push Jason back. Jason countered with another randomly grabbed blade, ripping the leg off once again, and jumping back as it reformed. "I see. He regenerates. Even with these hundred blades, getting at him with brute force will be difficult." Then he thought of Iris, crying from the misery of her own thoughts. "Difficult, but not impossible." The water demon commanded, "A raging sea will trample and flatten everything; even swallowing up the concept of hatred." Raising it's arm, the demon unleashed a powerful pillar of jet-black water from below Jason with overwhelming speed and force. Jason used his energy cloak to reach for various blades, using them as a shield to withstand the water pressure that was being sent his way. As the water died down from bombarding his blade too long, he grabbed two extra swords. "I've figured you out." He said, smiling under his mask. The smile was malicious, and reached his eyes. "Regeneration. Truly helpful ability. You can regenerate indefinitely, I take it? So long as some piece of you is intact?" "That is correct. Only by vaporizing my every being could you even hope to defeat me." he paused for a moment and then realized what he said, comically ruining the whole situation, attempting to take back his words instantly. "That is to say, you need to strike me down with the appropriate timing." Much better. A sea of blackness manifested behind the fountain-demon, which crashed towards Jason with tremendous power. Jason flicked one of the nearest blades, conjuring his shield by focusing his utter and complete hatred for this create into it, creating an impenetrable barrier that stopped the water cold. "Thank you kindly for the information." He said as the water died down and he gripped an additional sword, wielding two now. "This is for Iris." The energy blades began to give off a violent black energy, crackling all around and whipping up water. "GOOD-BYE!" He swung the blades in tandem, releasing a huge blast of magical energy, double what he could send from one Gehaburn alone, that completely enveloped the giant beast from head to claw and spread out far behind it, eradicating most of the scenery. Every single atom that composed the fountain demon was vaporized by the sheer force of the blast. The scenery was twisted and torn; the ice shattered for miles like it was nothing. Vivian, Ulalia, Momoko, and Wendy watched on as the blast slowly dissipated in the air, restoring relative peace once more. Vivian, holding the still shaking Iris, called out to Jason, "Oi, you! Hurry up and help us here...!" Jason turned, deactivating Gehaburn's demon form, and the Hundred-One swords with it, but in his haste to rush to Iris' side, leaving his mask on. He ran over, skidding to her side and bending down, placing his arms on her shoulders and forcing her to look up at him. "Iris!" The expressionless mask...Jason should have definitely ditched that. Iris's eyes contracted in fear as she let out a loud shriek of pure terror. "....D-Don't touch me...!!" Vivian glanced up at Jason for a moment, telling him truthfully. "...You should really take that mask off. I mean she's afraid of Noh masks...." Jason allowed the mask to crack and break and it shattered into pieces onto the ground. As the mask shattered, his emotions settled, though he was slightly disturbed. This was the first time he'd ever forgotten he'd had the mask on. He put this thought to the side. "Iris...are you alright?" Iris's eyes were brimming with tears as she was still shaking erratically; her nerves shot. "I...I..." Vivian ran a pure-white hand through Iris's head of brown hair, attempting to sooth her. "Ssh. It's okay now. We got over it a long time ago, remember?" The sight of Vivian showing the utmost kindness to Iris was rather touching. Jason gripped Iris in a tight embrace, refusing to let her go. "It's fine now. Everything is fine. The creature is destroyed. And we're all here." "That's right!" Wendy said enthusiastically. "We're all 'Akatsuki', Iris, we're your friends and here no matter what." "Y-yeah..." Yasaka wasn't one for the encouraging speech, and she hadn't forgotten when Iris tried to squeeze the life out of her in a hug, but to see the girl cry REALLY was depressing. Iris' tears slowly dried up as she nodded; Vivian's words of "Remember, we went over this a LONG time ago. You don't need to hate this world; you've just experienced so much crap that you were jaded and believed that everything was dishonest. But Iris, really...I love you." Vivian hugged her tightly, as Iris slowly returned to her senses. Jason hoisted her over his back, piggyback style once again, her head resting on his shoulders. "Rest, is that clear? We'll continue moving to the next treasures, but I'll keep you close Iris. Trust in me, okay?" Iris nodded weakly in compliance as she was still slightly shaken up by this event; but nevertheless, she had absolute faith in Jason and her own friends. "Of course..." "What treasure is next, Momoko?" Jason asked, turning to her again. "The sooner all seven are destroyed, the sooner all of us can head back home." Momoko took out the map once more. "Let's seee....There's the Wailing Wall, which is to the north of here. It's a short corridor in a part of the village; it's said that you can never get close to it, no matter how much you try." "All of this stuff just oozes 'suspicious', you do know that?" Yasaka asked, frowning. Momoko retaliated rather quietly, "Yeah, but these have been around since as long as I've been born. What you find 'suspicious' is merely 'normal' to us. But at least now, we're getting to the bottom of all of this stuff." END